


Bargaining

by stark2ash



Series: Aro/Ace Avengers [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Clint Barton, Asexual Character, Asexuality Spectrum, Aspec Clint Barton, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Fluff, Sex-positive ace, brief mentions of sex, no explicit content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25325329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stark2ash/pseuds/stark2ash
Summary: It had become their thing to chat on the couch after every mission, have a beer or some tea, and lightly bully each other about their various life choices.(or, light fluff and banter with some aro themes mixed in)
Relationships: Clint Barton & Tony Stark
Series: Aro/Ace Avengers [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1825051
Kudos: 30





	Bargaining

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if this is a tw, but Tony expresses thoughts about love consistent with people unfamiliar with aro/ace identities. Not in a mean way, just a bit uneducated.

“So I’m not really sure if I want to date her or if she just brings me coffee enough that I’ve transferred my feelings from the coffee to her.” _Duck, swing, grab the weapon._ “I mean, I feel like I should be able to tell by now.” He swung from a hanging pipe on the ceiling and landed six feet in front of where he had been. _Knees, swipe, down._ “You feel?” Clint scrambled up the iron ladder bolted into the concrete walls, then turned just enough to fire two arrows in quick succession. He surveyed the damage in front of him.

Seven men lay in various degrees of unconsciousness on the floor below him. The door in the back of the room was still ajar from when he had burst in a few minutes ago, and begun serenading the thugs with his latest life story. He hopped down from his perch on the ladder and turned his comms back on. “Okay guys, good news and bad news. Good news – this building is clear. Bad news – these guys are terrible conversationalists. Didn’t even give me any feedback.” He heard a muffled laugh that was clearly Iron Man.

Even Black Widow sounded fond. “Hawkeye, you have to stop spilling your life secrets to every low-grade villain we come across.” Clint made his way back down the hallways, moving toward his team’s location. “Someday they’re going to talk back.”

“Yeah, well until that happens,” Clint said, and the team came into view. “We good to go?”

Cap shook his head. “Iron Man’s somewhere in there, downloading files, but all their men are down.”

“I’m fine, I’ll fly back myself,” Iron Man said. “I can get JARVIS to download everything remotely, too, so it’ll be ready for analysis by the time we’re there.”

Clint shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” The others didn’t argue. It had been a long day. They probably set a new record for loading the Quinjet, and with Clint at the controls, it wasn’t long before they were in the sky and on their way home.

-

When they stepped out of the elevator, exhausted, Tony was sitting on the couch, freshly showered, with a glass of something in his hand. Natasha rolled her eyes, and Clint huffed. “How the fuck did you get back here so fast?”

Tony turned toward them and said, “Oh, nuclear rocket boosters,” like that explained everything. “Want some?” He held up a second glass.

“I would love nuclear rocket boosters, thank you for asking.” Clint took the glass and settled into the other side of the couch. “Would really help with my frequent falling off of buildings issue.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Barton, you’d hit a wall and hurt yourself within seconds.”

“Funny, I seem to recall a video of you doing almost exactly that a few years back.”

Stark laughed into his cup. “Exactly, I’m much smarter than you. If you wore them it would be a disaster.”

They settled into their friendly post-mission roasts, and the rest of the team cleared out. It had started out as an accident, when Clint had a nasty gash on his leg and Tony, the least injured and sleep deprived of the lot (first time for everything), had to stay up and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. The next time, their roles were switched – Clint had found it personally upsetting how quiet yet active a concussed Stark was, and didn’t want him to die on the living room couch because he tried to take apart the coffee table for a third time (and he didn’t want to update the sign on the fridge door – "8 days since last screwdriver incident"). Since then, it had become their thing to chat on the couch after every mission, have a beer or some tea, and lightly bully each other about their various life choices.

“Any dates lately?”

Clint rolled his eyes. “I’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone get to know a whole other person.” Between debriefs, training, and Steve's new idea that they should do team yoga at 7 in the morning to "take a page out of Bruce's book and destress", his life had become a whole new level of busy. 

“Come on, give me something.”

“Living vicariously through me, Stark? How are you and Pepper?”

“Still very deeply in love, although she probably regrets it every time I invent something new.” Tony sipped his drink.

“Like the nuclear rockets.”

“Exactly like the nuclear rockets.” Stark wiped his mouth. “But that’s different. I want to hear about all of your expeditions that don’t involve highly powered pieces of technology. What about that girl you mentioned last week? Alice? Alicia? Where did you meet her?”

“Jesus Christ, your memory is shit. Her name’s Maya, and I met her in the caf on my weekly ‘terrorize the locals on floor 4’ trip.” Sometimes people didn’t recognize him, which was fine, but when they did, reactions ranged from soft surprise to emotional extremes. The cashiers in the food lines were used to it, and they looked like they enjoyed a mild spectacle every now and again, so he popped in a few times a month. Maya was one of the coffee bar baristas, and she was the only one who would let him order four shots of espresso in a single drink. “We met up a couple of times over the past month, but we haven’t talked in a while. Not sure where I want that to go.” He thought back to his talk (talk?) with the thugs a few hours before.

“You met up? Outside the tower?” Clint could see Tony powering up his shit-eating grin.

“Her place, just a few times.”

“Nice. Love that, adult fun.” Tony raised his glass, and Clint tapped his own to it. “Cheers.”

And that’s really all it had been. Fun (okay, sexy fun) with another person who was fun. He didn’t really want to date her, but didn’t that make him a douchebag? Only terrible guys saw girls just for sex. But, if he told her that, she might be mad and not make him his quad espresso, and that would be a big loss. He told Stark as much.

“Nah, everyone’s got their own timeline. You can do the bachelor thing for a while, God knows it worked out for me.”

“Did it, though?”

“I mean, only two of my former hookups threatened to out me as a corrupt weapons manufacturer, and considering that they were right at the time, I’d call it a win.” Clint relaxed on the couch, feeling the tightness from the earlier mission starting to settle into his muscles. “And now I have Pepper. You’ll get to that point someday.”

“I don’t know, it’s kind of fun seeing Steve’s face when he realizes I did the nasty before marriage. Maybe I'll never get married and see if he ever gets used to it.”

“Nah, he'll adjust. Plus, I just don’t think he expected it to be a dude that one time.”

“I told him I was bi! What more could he want?”

“A vibe check from the 21st century, probably.”

Clint pointed at Tony. “You’ve been hanging out with Peter.”

“Guilty.” Tony held up his hands. “But why not try to date her? Could make the sex more fun.”

Clint winced, trying to get ahold of all his emotions from earlier. (Easier said than done, especially after a few beers). “It just doesn’t appeal to me. What’s the benefit? I already live with all of you, which is fun, and having sex is fun, and I can do that without dating anyone, so I don’t see a reason why.” It wasn’t like he craved sex so much he sought it out, but if the opportunity presented itself, it was like having a fun little party with one other person that made them both feel good. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Stark sat for a few seconds, probably rolling Clint’s words over in his head. “I guess when you really like someone, you’ll know. Maybe Maya’s not it for you, but you’ll have someone someday. All I did when I was your age-“

“You’re only ten years older than me.”

“- was do it with any girl that showed interest. But once Pepper came in, I really got what love is about, you know?” Clint didn’t know, but he nodded anyway. “So even though casual hookups were fun and all, love is the endgame, and it’s worth it. I don’t miss the hookups.”

Clint laughed, “Then why do you always ask me about mine?”

“Because I’m interested in your life, asshole.” Tony threw a throw pillow at him, and Clint deflected it onto the floor.

“I guess I should ask her on a date, then.” Was it a good idea? What if he really had transferred his feelings from the coffee to her? But she shouldn’t be treated like just a body that liked to have sex with him sometimes. Maybe she was waiting for him to make a move. Right? Who decided to make rules for the whole romance thing? He was just fine with the friends with benefits situation they had going on.

Tony fist-pumped the air. “Barton, we might just make a respectable boyfriend out of you! Go ask her right now.”

Clint internally freaked. “Right now?”

“Yeah, I mean, she’s on the schedule for tonight. Go for it.”

 _Might as well get it over with_. “Wait, how do you know she’s working?”

Tony raised his eyebrows over a tablet that Clint hadn’t noticed he was holding. “So I’m not sure how observant you are, but I own this whole building and employ everyone who works here.”

“Dick,” Clint said. “I don’t work for you.”

“Eh, I make all your stuff, house you, feed you, and make sure you don’t bleed out from time to time. Same difference. So, go pop the question?”

Clint didn’t have time to think about how the marriage slang made his stomach turn. “I guess so. Wish me luck.” He got up from the couch, immediately regretting the strain in his muscles. Maybe all he needed was a warm bath, not a girlfriend. His feet carried him to the elevator, and he pushed the button for the fourth floor. Maybe coffee was his real true love. Maybe he could figure out how to share that love with another person.

Tony called after him. “Do _not_ ask her out for coffee.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't sure how to really end this. Clint's not quite there yet - not ready to take those first steps of "my feelings don't align with how everyone is telling me I should feel" - but I wrote him as aro/sex-positive ace. He's trying to convince himself that everything is fine, and that he's allo (even if he doesn't know those terms yet), and therefore: bargaining.
> 
> I don't have plans to continue this story currently, but I do feel bad that he's getting this kind of ending.
> 
> If you like, please check out the other parts of this series!


End file.
